Wednesday, 3 November 2010

Very keen to check out this new Boston band, led by John Strohm, who's seen service in a whole raft of bands I liked (Lemonheads, Blake Babies... I even liked Antenna!), so Clive and I drove down in his old car for the last time before he sells it to some boy racer. Never mind, the new Rover looks good...

So we rocked down to Moles in double-quick time, getting in through the door 2nd and 3rd in, so qualifying for the free split single for the first 25 punters! Result! Not bad at all, as we'd only paid one measly Pound to get in as well, thanks to a flyer!

Out Of My Hair, first band on tonight at 10.30ish on this joint headline tour show, were all glammed up with nowhere to go. They were occasionally quite musical, in a slightly clumsy Roxy Music-ish kind of way, but were mostly boring actually. Still, never mind, they were always just the support so far as we were concerned...

Big (and newly shorn!) John Strohm led his young charges onstage at 11.15, casually set up, then proceeded to whip up a resonant crescendo of noise which turned Clive and myself into whirling dervishes. Their second number in was dedicated to the lads down the front in Velvet Crush t-shirts (guess who?), as the set whirled by in an amphetamine rush of electricity and feedback. JPS's new charges are like very few bands I've heard before; a juddering wall of noise, like early MBV, except with great songs. We freaked out, got the boys dragged out for 2 encores (!), and shook hands with the big man, increasingly becoming an all-time axe hero of mine, at the end of a fabulously absorbing and thrilling set. Highlights? Ooh, pretty much all of 'em!